Mahler - Symphony 4 [Finnie/Jarvi-Royal Scottish Orchestra]Neeme Jarvi is quite new to me in Mahler, this is the first time i've listened to this Symphony under his baton, the only other Mahler/Jarvi experience was this last March listening to his Fifth Symphony for the first time, and again i guess the jury's out, i just find it hard to form a solid opinion on one listen, in fact these two listening experiences are the only Mahler i've written about this year so far!, maybe i'm getting weaned off this Composer!.
Neeme Jarvi is Estonian, now emigrated to the United States, a very prolific recording Artist for Chandos Records, now 73 years of age, this disc was recorded back in 1990.
I enjoyed all of this Symphony, although i must admit that having a Mezzo-Soprano at the end was a wrong choice, as a child's view of heaven, it really should be a more girlish Soprano, the slow Ruhevoll Adagio third movement really stands out, it's Mahler's very best slow movement, full of glorious sweet strings, the movement starts out with gentle and sweet lower strings [0:00+], and it's a heavenly joy when the higher strings come in and play the same tune [0:59+], and it takes until [1:29] until an oboe breaks the strings monopoly, one thing i notice while playing this, is the extensive use of this oboe, especially at the start of this movement, also the trumpets have their moment, in a louder outburst [6:10+], the sour strings accompanied by brittle muted trumpets, later the trumpets play without mutes [11:44+], clearly heard in this recording, and i've not noticed their beauty before, but it's roughly three quartets through where the most magical things happen, the violins achingly come in very high indeed, but very quiet and endearing too [15:22+], with middle strings playing a gentle melody, and a little later the horns fill in the background [16:11+], just a little later those same high violins play very gentle and quiet solo [16:45+], with only the barest of basses in the background, this little section really does take my breath away, before the ending, Mahler gets in one more triumphant outburst, there's this fantastic explosion [17:31+], the timpani blast in, and the brass / trumpets join in, and the timpani hammer out heartbeats [17:46+], a lovely moment, on this recording i find that the Royal Scottish Orchestra can be quite lean, maybe they're a chamber group, but it does bring out the individual instruments, and Jarvi takes advantage of this, also it's a movement of the use of very high violin strings, Mahler uses them to great effect here, i hear some very nice things on this listen.
Here's Bernstein playing this lovely Adagio on YouTube, with the Vienna Philharmonic.
